1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to cases for storing magnetic tape cartridges and more specifically to such cases having means for spring biasing a cartridge or a drawer adapted for receiving a cartridge inserted therein.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A wide variety of containers with spring biased drawers are known in the art. Recently, containers with spring biased drawers have been developed to store magnetic tape cassettes as is evidenced by U.S. Pat. No. 3,899,229 to Ackeret, issued Aug. 12, 1975, and disclosing a case for storing a magnetic tape audio cassette.
The Ackeret case is formed of a housing having a drawer biased with a spring that opposes insertion of the drawer into the housing. The front portion of the drawer includes a movable latch member having a nib that serves as a catch. When the drawer is in a fully closed position, the nib fits into an aperture at the front of the housing to hold the drawer in place. To open the drawer, the latch member must be moved sufficiently to disengage the nib from the aperture, whereupon the drawer pops open in response to pressure from the bias spring.
Although the Ackeret case provides a relatively satisfactory and convenient structure for storage of magnetic tape cassettes, molding of the drawer with its movable latch member is undesirable in that a complex and expensive tool is required. Moreover, because the latch member must be easily movable, its connection to the drawer is relatively weak and subject to breaking.
The present invention is directed to a cassette storage case similar to the Ackeret case in many respects but employs a latching mechanism that differs from that of the Ackeret case in both structure and operation, and eliminates the movable latch member required by the Ackeret case.